Teaching about Problematic Figures

Some historical figures were less than fresh. Should we teach students about colonisers, enslavers, and racists?

In the quest to diversify the curriculum, we often find ourselves seeking representative figures to people our subjects. Our subjects are often made richer through the lens of their most prominent figures—leaders, explorers, inventors, and revolutionaries whose legacies have shaped the world we live in. There are certainly ‘staple’ figures, named or otherwise in the curriculum, who also have deeply troubling aspects to their lives and actions. Christopher Columbus, Carl Linnaeus, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi, and others have made indelible marks on history—but often at the expense of marginalised communities. As we become more aware of the complexities of history, and more aware of the need to diversify people, how do we teach about these figures?

The Complexity of Legacy

One of the biggest challenges in historical education is grappling with complexity. We often simplify our stories because we are squeezing content in, trying to cover the curriculum and, sometimes, we do so because we deem certain content to be age-inappropriate. So, some of our famous figures are presented as either heroes or villains. But human beings are rarely so binary. A historical figure may have made groundbreaking contributions in one area while simultaneously upholding or perpetuating harm in another (Loewen, 2007).